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CBS has ordered two more episodes of the fun British-detective-in-NYC drama Elementary (one of which is for the recently-given prime post-Super-Bowl slot), while reducing fellow new series Vegas by one episode (bringing their totals to 24 and 21, respectively).

NBC has given an additional 4-episode order to Guys With Kids, bringing the show to 17 episodes.

Some more casting news for S.H.I.E.L.D.! British Elizabeth Henstridge will play science whiz Gemma Simmons, while Scottish Iain De Caestecker will play tech guru Leo Fitz, The two characters are supposed to spend a lot of their time together, mostly bickering. I’m not familiar with either of these actors, though apparently they haven’t been in much. I’m still rooting for Whedonverse actors vs. fresh faces, but Joss has done alright with many of the newbies he’s had in his shows.

Still catching up on TV news after the resurrection of my computer. Both Beauty and the Beast and Chicago Fire were picked up for full seasons, and Syfy renewed Haven for a fourth season. I’m kinda meh about the Beauty and the Beast news – the show hasn’t really hooked me yet, though I’m still reluctantly watching. I was hoping Cult would claim the post-Vampire Diaries slot midseason to bring over the Matt Davis fans.

The midseason comedy The Family Tools has had its episode order reduced from 13 episodes to 10, due to scheduling issues. Also, Netflix is looking at working with AMC to renew The Killing.

After several insane episodes and a crazy cliffhanger on the last one, I knew Arrow would have to slow down the pace at some point, and this episode was it. But it still was filled with many awesome character moments, even if the coolest action scenes took place 5 years ago on the island.

Spoilers below!

And the island is where this episode started, even though I was dying to find out what would happen after Oliver’s arrest last episode. Oliver steps away for one minute from his island mentor (to retrieve his first poorly-shot arrow – cool that we got to see that) and is captured. He’s questioned by an officer and answers honestly, until the man pulls out a photo of his mentor in military dress and asks if Oliver’s seen him and where he is. Oliver lies (badly), and keeps up the charade of not knowing the guy, even when Deathstroke shows up and starts torturing him. I’m not sure how long it’s been since the shipwreck (Oliver’s hair still looks mostly the same, so I’m guessing only a few weeks), but that’s an amazing amount of loyalty to show for a guy who shot an arrow through your chest. The mentor comes in and rescues Oliver (with a cool fight with Deathstroke) just as the bad guys decide he probably doesn’t know anything and can be killed. The archer is suitably impressed by Oliver not ratting him out, and says there’s more to Oliver than he thought.

The flashbacks neatly parallel Oliver’s present-day arrest and interrogation. He claims he just saw the bag and took it, and that Quentin just has a personal vendetta against him. He asks his mother to request Laurel as his lawyer. Laurel at first refuses, but shows up at his arraignment and gets him out on bail, with a tracking anklet.

Diggle is freaking out (in his calm way) about the arrest, but Oliver tells him he knew about the security camera and was planning to get arrested. The timing of Arrow’s appearance with his return would eventually lead people to figure out who he was, so better to remove himself as a suspect now. To clear his name, he has a plan – let Dig dress up as Arrow and stop an arms dealer while Oliver hosts a “prison party” with plenty of witnesses. It was so fun watching Dig explore all of the cool gadgets in Oliver’s lair!

Oliver and Laurel meet with Quentin and the prosecutor, who offers an insanity plea deal based on Oliver being on the island for so long. Oliver refuses, saying he wants to take a polygraph and convince Quentin of his innocence. The polygraph scene was one of my favorites in the episode, especially since we got to see Laurel’s reaction to Oliver’s answers. Oliver tells Quentin he’s not the vigilante and lies about a few other things surrounding that, but is able to act like he’s telling the truth. Quentin then confronts him with discrepancy between his scars and being alone on the island, and Oliver confesses that he wasn’t alone, but he didn’t want to talk about it, because the people there tortured him. When Quentin asks if he’s killed anyone, Oliver says yes – “Your daughter, Sarah, because I invited her onto my boat.”

Before the party, Thea questions Oliver about the arrowhead he brought back for her, thinking that indicates he’s really the vigilante. Oliver assures her he isn’t, and lies and says he got the arrowhead at an airport gift shop. Meanwhile, their mom and stepdad are dealing with their own issues. Moira assures unnamed-dude-played-by-John-Barrowman (I’ve finally gotten to a few of his episodes on Doctor Who, so I can now see why people are excited that he’s on the show! Also, if they’re going to all this trouble to hide his name, I’m guessing he’ll end up being a significant character from the comics?) that Oliver has been falsely accused. Walter has his head of security move the damaged boat to a different warehouse, but the man turns up dead.

Laurel shows up at the party to apologize for her father. I’ve only been able to pick up a little about the Black Canary from people talking about the comics, but there appears to be two references in this scene. One, she mentions annoying fishnets in one of her Halloween costumes, which are part of the Black Canary’s traditional attire. Two, she talks about how after Sarah died, she and her father retreated to the law while her mother didn’t. In the comics, her mom is the original Black Canary – could this be a hint that the show plans to include that?

Those who were complaining about the chemistry between Stephen Amell and Katie Cassidy in the pilot should really watch this scene and the one a little later on. I’m so glad to be right that it would get better (since I’d seen the spark they shared during interviews)! The mix of anger, feigned indifference, attraction, friendship, and sadness Laurel is supposed to feel at any given moment toward Oliver must be a struggle to get right.

Laurel admits, in all her mourning for Sarah, she didn’t think about what Oliver went through on the island. She asks to see his scars and they kiss for a few moments before she bolts out of the room. Diggle calls to report scaring off the bad guys, and Oliver is interrupted by a man, dressed as staff for the party, knocking on his door. He opens it and the man tries to shoot him. They fight, and in the middle Quentin comes in and shoots the guy.

Walter confronts Moira with knowledge of the ship and seems to think she’s behind the head of security’s death. We don’t see the end of their conversation. It’s not clear whether it was interrupted by news of the attack on Oliver, but in a later scene, Walter informs Moira that he’s leaving on an extended business trip to Australia.

Quentin explains that the fight knocked Oliver’s anklet loose, which is why he came up to check on him. Also, he says several witnesses spotted Arrow in another part of town, so he removes the anklet completely and says they’ll be dropping the charges. He doesn’t know who Oliver’s attacker was, but Moira insists that it’s Quentin’s fault for arresting Oliver publicly and putting a target on his back for everyone angry with the vigilante. Oliver thanks Quentin for saving his life.

Moira goes to John Barrowman, and it’s pretty clear he’s calling the shots (so I might have been wrong about Moira being coldblooded – perhaps she found out about the sabotaged boat after the fact? I couldn’t find an exact quote of the earlier conversation). He was the one who killed the head of security and tried to have Oliver killed. Moira tells him she’s been a “good soldier” (is he blackmailing her to keep the same arrangement he had with her late husband?), but, “if any member of my family so much as gets a paper cut, I will burn your entire world to ashes.”

Laurel comes to Oliver with the final polygraph results. There’s a slight waver on the question about whether he’d ever been at the prison (where he rescued Laurel), and she wonders if he remembered their field trip there as teens, or if he’s able to lie well enough to beat a polygraph. Oliver tells her he doesn’t want people to view him as damaged, but he doesn’t sleep, he barely eats, and he can hardly sign his own name – how could he wield a bow and arrow? She tells him that they’re still obviously attracted to each other, but they can never be together. (Cue seasons-long will they/won’t they drama.)

Dig is upset that Oliver’s lying to everyone so easily, and wonders if he really thought through this aspect of his mission – deceiving every one he cares about. Oliver assures him that he thinks about it every day – and heads to take out the arms dealer, who didn’t heed Diggle’s warning. But I’m guessing both Laurel and Thea still aren’t fully convinced that Oliver isn’t Arrow. It’s going to be a lot harder for him to tell anyone else now – it’s one thing to have a secret identity, it’s another to outright deny accusations and purposely mislead, and those who find out will have to get over feeling somewhat betrayed first.

As I said, this was a great episode, even if it lacked jaw-dropping moments like the previous ones had. I’m sad to see Walter go (for a bit at least) – I liked his character more than I expected. I missed Felicity in this episode, and we’ve seen far too little of Tommy lately.

Personal note: Windows failed to load on my computer Monday, leading to frantic attempts to fix and use of super-slow old computers – and no new posts on this blog. I reinstalled Windows several hours ago, and have been working to get my computer back to normal (fortunately most stuff was backed up). In the meantime, TV news kept coming in! Here are some highlights:

Burn Notice has been renewed for a 13-episode season 7! This is notably shorter than its usual 16-18 episode seasons, but it has not been announced as the final season (there was some speculation that it would). The second half of season 6 resumes today at 9/8c with a special two-hour premiere.

NCIS: Los Angeles is preparing a special two-part episode to launch a potential spin-off series. The potential series would focus on a mobile NCIS unit that travels around the country solving Navy-related crimes. This two-part-planted-pilot has become a mainstay in the franchise. NCIS: Los Angeles had one on the original NCIS, while NCIS itself was a spin-off of JAG. Expect the episode to give a good feel of what the potential show would look like, but there will likely be some tweaking (on NCIS: Los Angeles, Hetty replaced Macy when the show started the following fall; on NCIS, Kate Todd replaced Vivian Blackadder).

Nikita is moving back to its old 8PM timeslot on November 30 and will be followed by Arrow repeats. The show has struggled in its 9PM slot against increased scripted competition (Grimm, Fringe, and CSI:NY all also air at that time). This week will be its final 9PM outing, and then it will take two weeks off – for the two-hour season final of America’s Next Top Model, and for Thanksgiving weekend.

FX has released the first trailer for its Cold War spy drama, The Americans, starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys. Take a look:

The news that USA Network canceled both freshman Common Law and sophomore Fairly Legal shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise since several actors from the shows moved on to other things after the network let their contract options expire. Since I don’t watch either show, the news doesn’t bother me. I just hope USA finds some great shows to replace them. USA also chose not to put up a second season of limited-series show Political Animals.

No word yet on the fate of Necessary Roughness, but apparently Burn Notice is very close to a seventh season renewal. Season 6 resumes November 8 with a two-hour episode. Also, production has started on new series Graceland.

Fox recently reduced the 13-episode order for midseason comedy The Goodwin Games to 7. The network says the reduction is due to scheduling, not the show’s quality. It will likely air after Ben and Kate finishes its 19-episode season.

Okay, I wasn’t sure Brendan Fraser could pull off this role (he doesn’t seem to have too wide a range of characters he could play convincingly). So who do you think the show should cast as a “conflicted undercover agent who has an uncanny ability to transform himself into a different person for each job”?

I’m going with Enver Gjokaj. He already proved he was amazing at this in Dollhouse, plus if they’re going for a similar look to Fraser, he fits the bill.

NBC has finally revealed when Community will return – February 7! What I hate about this announcement is that the show will be going back to competing directly with ratings juggernaut The Big Bang Theory in the Thursdays at 8 time slot, as well as American Idol and the CW’s highest-rated drama, The Vampire Diaries.

The Thursday night comedy lineup for NBC will then be: Community, Parks and Rec, The Office, and new show 1600 Penn (30 Rock will have ended and Up All Night will be on hiatus). No word on when midseason comedy Save Me will make an appearance.

Other midseason NBC news:

New drama Deception (formerly Infamous) will take Revolution’s plum Mondays at 10 slot in January while the futuristic drama goes on hiatus. It will air after The Biggest Loser (Revolution and The Voice will return in late March).

Smash will start its second season on Tuesday, February 5th at 10 after Parenthood wraps up its season in January. This move actually makes me more likely to watch the show, as I usually don’t have any broadcast shows to watch in that time slot. I liked some things about the show during its first season, but hated others. The music, however, kept me watching.

ABC has ordered 9 more episodes of The Neighbors and Scandal, bringing them both to 22-episode full seasons. No word on the fate of new dramas Last Resort, 666 Park Avenue, and Nashville yet.

NBC has decided not to pick up The Farm, a Dwight-focused spin-off of The Office. The planted pilot episode will still air as a standalone episode of The Office. And the midseason drama Infamous now has a new name – Deception.

The network did order 3 more episodes of struggling sophomore comedy Up All Night – but there’s a twist. After an extended winter hiatus, the show will return in the spring for its final 5 episodes as a multi-camera show, complete with a live audience. NBC seems to be favoring multi-camera shows this year – canceling Animal Practice while still airing (so far) Guys With Kids, putting Whitney on Wednesdays while keeping Community in limbo, and canceling single-camera Next Caller. Also, while they still have two new single-camera comedies lined up for midseason, they’re losing two single-camera shows with 30 Rock and The Office ending.

Many networks altered their schedules thanks to Hurricane Sandy. CBS aired repeats of its Monday comedies and a special weather update at 10. The CW aired repeats of 90210 and Gossip Girl instead of the planned originals. And NBC is preempting Go On and The New Normal on Tuesday.

And while there’s been a ton of pilot news lately, most of it is pretty nebulous. One pilot order that caught my eye was sci-fi thriller Mila 2.0. Deadline shared that the potential show is about “a young woman who discovers that she is a Mobile Intel Life-like Android, Mila, an experiment in artificial intelligence created by the U.S. government and her scientist mother, who kidnapped her when she was found to have human emotions.” The pilot will be based on the upcoming book Mila 2.0 (pre-order here!) by debut author Debra Driza.

How I Met Your Mother has cast a lot of Whedonverse stars over the years, but this one, reuniting Willow and Oz, takes the cake. Even better, Seth Green will have scenes with his former Buffy co-star Alyson Hannigan! The episode will tentatively air December 10th.

We finally have our first new cast member announcement for S.H.I.E.L.D.! Ming-Na will play Agent Melinda May, a soulful but somewhat damaged soldier, pilot, and weapons expert. I’m still hoping for more Whedonverse alums to join the pilot, though.

Ming-Na played Dr. Chen on ER, Senator Wen on Eureka, and Camile Wray on Stargate Universe, but her voice may be more familiar than her face: she voiced the title character in Disney’s Mulan!

Lots of TV news today! After airing only two episodes, Arrow has been picked up for a full season (additional “back nine” episodes ordered). Fellow CW newbies Beauty and the Beast and Emily Owens, MD have been given three additional script orders.

Fox has given two additional episode orders to both New Girl and Raising Hope, bringing their totals to 24. This could be a likely indication that Ben and Kate, which has a shortened full season order of 19 episodes, could be replaced by fellow sibling comedy The Goodwin Games at midseason (probably late winter or spring).

In cable news, Homeland has been renewed for a third season, and BBC America’s Copper has been picked up for season two. Titus Welliver has dropped out of the TNT pilot The Last Ship, and Adam Baldwin (Chuck, Firefly) has been tapped to replace him. Baldwin will play second-in-command to Eric Dane (Grey’s Anatomy). The Last Ship features the crew of a naval destroyer after most of the earth’s population has been destroyed by a global catastrophe.

Private Practice creator Shonda Rhimes and ABC have decided to let the show end after finishing up this season’s thirteen-episode run. Sister show Grey’s Anatomy will get two additional episodes, however.

ABC is also giving Castle one extra episode this season, while comedies Modern Family and The Middle have been granted two extra episodes. They’ve also ordered two additional scripts each for struggling new dramas Last Resort and 666 Park Avenue.

Fox also has joined “extra episode Friday,” bumping The Mindy Project’s recent full season order from 22 to 24 episodes. While many have anticipated the network would pull low-performing new drama The Mob Doctor from its Mondays-at-9 slot any day now, Fox recently announced the show would air 3 out of 4 Mondays during November sweeps.

As I mentioned earlier, Animal Practice has been pulled from NBC’s schedule and replaced by Whitney. There’s still no news about when Community will return – I’d expected to hear something by now, so I’m beginning to fear it won’t return until midseason. I’m also starting to get a sneaking suspicion that NBC knows how rabid Community fans get when something happens with their show, and are using the uncertainty to build buzz. Further cementing the idea that they want this schedule change to increase anticipation for new episodes, this awesome clip was released the day the season premiere was supposed to air:

The title and description of this new pilot/potential show has me thinking about the NCIS: Los Angeles intro episode on NCIS (the episode’s title was even “Legend”). Brendan Fraser will be playing “a conflicted undercover agent who has an uncanny ability to transform himself into a different person for each job.” The description also has echos of The Pretender.

The question is, does Fraser have the chops to pull off a different character every week?